Just after the North American markets closed this Thursday, RIM announced its Q3 earnings. While many analysts believed that RIM would have a hard time meeting its adjusted earnings forcast, RIM actually exceeded them, but just barely. In this day and age, exceeding a forecast is nothing short of a coup, even if by a fraction of a percentage point. RIM’s revenue came in at $2.78 billion, up 7.9% from Q2, while net income totaled $396.5 million (adjusted net income stood at $477.3 million). Earnings were $0.83 per share diluted, which beat expectations by $0.01. As for Q4, RIM is expecting strong sales which strangely enough is thanks in part to previous delays for the Bold and Storm. Because both devices were released at the tail end of Q3, it is expected that the high demand for them will help RIM weather what has been predicted by some to be one of the worst holiday retail seasons in recent history.
Hit the jump for the official RIM release.
Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion Limited (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today reported third quarter results for the three months ended November 29, 2008 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP, except where noted). The third quarter results reported today by RIM are in line with the preliminary third quarter results reported by RIM on December 2, 2008.
Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 was $2.78 billion, up 7.9% from $2.58 billion in the previous quarter and up 66.3% from $1.67 billion in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 81% for devices, 13% for service, 2% for software and 4% for other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 6.7 million devices.
Approximately 2.6 million net new BlackBerry® subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base increased from the prior quarter by approximately 14% to approximately 21 million.
“We are pleased to report record revenue results for the third quarter and we have entered the fourth quarter with strong momentum despite the challenging general economic conditions. In fact we have enjoyed our best ever start to the holiday buying season over the past few weeks,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM. “RIM launched an unprecedented number of BlackBerry smartphones in the third quarter and these new products are being adopted at an even faster pace than we expected. Our industry leading product portfolio is positioned well to capitalize on the increasing market opportunity in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 and beyond.”
Net income for the quarter was $396.3 million, or $0.69 per share diluted, compared with net income of $495.5 million, or $0.86 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and net income of $370.5 million, or $0.65 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $477.3 million, or $0.83 per share diluted. Adjusted earnings per share excludes a negative impact on RIM’s tax rate due to the significant depreciation of the Canadian dollar in Q3 and its effect on RIM’s U.S. dollar denominated assets and liabilities held by RIM’s Canadian operating companies that are subject to tax in Canadian dollars.(1)
